ORDINATIO SACERDOTALIS

Apostolic Letter of John Paul II
To the bishops of the Catholic Church
On Reserving Priestly Ordination to Men Alone

Venerable Brothers in the Episcopate,

1. Priestly ordination, which hands on the office
entrusted by Christ to his Apostles of teaching, sanctifying and governing the
faithful, has in the Catholic Church from the beginning always been reserved to
men alone. This tradition has also been faithfully maintained by the Oriental
Churches.

When the question of the ordination of women
arose in the Anglican Communion, Pope Paul VI, out of fidelity to his office of
safeguarding the Apostolic Tradition, and also with a view to removing a new
obstacle placed in the way of Christian unity, reminded Anglicans of the
position of the Catholic Church: "She holds that it is not admissible to
ordain women to the priesthood, for very fundamental reasons. These reasons
include: the example recorded in the Sacred Scriptures of Christ choosing his
Apostles only from among men; the constant practice of the Church, which has
imitated Christ in choosing only men; and her living teaching authority which
has consistently held that the exclusion of women from the priesthood is in
accordance with God's plan for his Church."(1)

But since the question had also become the
subject of debate among theologians and in certain Catholic circles, Paul VI
directed the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to set forth and expound
the teaching of the Church on this matter. This was done through the Declaration
Inter Insigniores, which the Supreme Pontiff approved and ordered to be
published.(2)

2. The Declaration recalls and explains the
fundamental reasons for this teaching, reasons expounded by Paul VI, and
concludes that the Church "does not consider herself authorized to admit
women to priestly ordination."(3) To these fundamental reasons the document
adds other theological reasons which illustrate the appropriateness of the
divine provision, and it also shows clearly that Christ's way of acting did not
proceed from sociological or cultural motives peculiar to his time. As Paul VI
later explained: "The real reason is that, in giving the Church her
fundamental constitution, her theological anthropology-thereafter always
followed by the Church's Tradition- Christ established things in this
way."(4)

In the Apostolic Letter Mulieris Dignitatem, I
myself wrote in this regard: "In calling only men as his Apostles, Christ
acted in a completely free and sovereign manner. In doing so, he exercised the
same freedom with which, in all his behavior, he emphasized the dignity and the
vocation of women, without conforming to the prevailing customs and to the
traditions sanctioned by the legislation of the time."(5)

In fact the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles
attest that this call was made in accordance with God's eternal plan; Christ
chose those whom he willed (cf. Mk 3:13-14; Jn 6:70), and he did so in union
with the Father, "through the Holy Spirit" (Acts 1:2), after having
spent the night in prayer (cf. Lk 6:12). Therefore, in granting admission to the
ministerial priesthood,(6) the Church has always acknowledged as a perennial
norm her Lord's way of acting in choosing the twelve men whom he made the
foundation of his Church (cf. Rv 21:14). These men did not in fact receive only
a function which could thereafter be exercised by any member of the Church;
rather they were specifically and intimately associated in the mission of the
Incarnate Word himself (cf. Mt 10:1, 7-8; 28:16-20; Mk 3:13-16; 16:14-15). The
Apostles did the same when they chose fellow workers(7) who would succeed them
in their ministry.(8) Also included in this choice were those who, throughout
the time of the Church, would carry on the Apostles' mission of representing
Christ the Lord and Redeemer.(9)

3. Furthermore, the fact that the Blessed Virgin
Mary, Mother of God and Mother of the Church, received neither the mission
proper to the Apostles nor the ministerial priesthood clearly shows that the
non-admission of women to priestly ordination cannot mean that women are of
lesser dignity, nor can it be construed as discrimination against them. Rather,
it is to be seen as the faithful observance of a plan to be ascribed to the
wisdom of the Lord of the universe.

The presence and the role of women in the life
and mission of the Church, although not linked to the ministerial priesthood,
remain absolutely necessary and irreplaceable. As the Declaration Inter
Insigniores points out, "the Church desires that Christian women should
become fully aware of the greatness of their mission: today their role is of
capital importance both for the renewal and humanization of society and for the
rediscovery by believers of the true face of the Church."(10)

The New Testament and the whole history of the
Church give ample evidence of the presence in the Church of women, true
disciples, witnesses to Christ in the family and in society, as well as in total
consecration to the service of God and of the Gospel. "By defending the
dignity of women and their vocation, the Church has shown honor and gratitude
for those women who-faithful to the Gospel-have shared in every age in the
apostolic mission of the whole People of God. They are the holy martyrs, virgins
and mothers of families, who bravely bore witness to their faith and passed on
the Church's faith and tradition by bringing up their children in the spirit of
the Gospel."(11)

Moreover, it is to the holiness of the faithful
that the hierarchical structure of the Church is totally ordered. For this
reason, the Declaration Inter Insigniores recalls: "the only better gift,
which can and must be desired, is love (cf. 1 Cor 12 and 13). The greatest in
the Kingdom of Heaven are not the ministers but the saints."(12)

4. Although the teaching that priestly ordination
is to be reserved to men alone has been preserved by the constant and universal
Tradition of the Church and firmly taught by the Magisterium in its more recent
documents, at the present time in some places it is nonetheless considered still
open to debate, or the Church's judgment that women are not to be admitted to
ordination is considered to have a merely disciplinary force.

Wherefore, in order that all doubt may be removed
regarding a matter of great importance, a matter which pertains to the Church's
divine constitution itself, in virtue of my ministry of confirming the brethren
(cf. Lk 22:32) I declare that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer
priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held
by all the Church's faithful.

Invoking an abundance of divine assistance upon
you, venerable brothers, and upon all the faithful, I impart my apostolic
blessing.

From the Vatican, on May 22, the Solemnity of
Pentecost, in the year 1994, the sixteenth of my Pontificate.